the TRUE alaskan experience

I just am having the worst time keeping up with these blog posts. It's not that I don't have the time to be posting on the blog daily. I'm just slowly losing interest I guess. It's much easier to write to an audience when I'm being asked questions and I am able to reply to those questions. Unfortunately no one comments on my posts except my parents and I talk to them almost everyday so the only thing they are getting out of my blog are the pretty photos that I post. So let me rewind a bit and let people in on my weekend. But first I'd love it if you had this nice soundtrack playing in the background. So please make sure the volume is up on your computer and I'll give you the scoop on what I believe to be the true Alaskan experience. Please click All the Little Lights by Passenger for music!

So this is me just sitting on my couch listening to Passenger's All the Little Lights album. I just got back from my professor's house, he invited my whole class over to watch the movie Gidget, it's this old movie based on this girl who tries to make it as a surfer. Of course the movie was made in 1959, so not only are the effects awful, but the whole story is based around her trying to become a "woman" and how she can't really become a woman until she finds a man. Thankfully women have come a long way within the outdoor industry and aren't solely participating in outdoor recreational sports for the sake of finding a man to complete her. Although I believe that women have come a long way in trying to make a name for themselves in this difficult and highly competitive outdoor industry, I can't help but feel like I'm incapable. I definitely feel held back compared to the rest of the guys within my class. We read this article not to long ago about how women always second guess their abilities and how we usually think before they jump and how we don't use our whole bodies when trying to accomplish a task, we only use a portion of what we are capable of. I hope I can get over this fear of getting hurt, and I hope I'm able to become great at something while I'm here. I'm tired of being an average dancer or an average rugby player. I want to be a badass skier, I want to say I've conquered mountains, I want to stand more than a mile above sea level, I want to live in a tent just to prove that I don't need much to survive, I want to prove myself as more than a woman in the outdoor industry, I want to change peoples lives..and hopefully someday I will. :)

So this weekend started on Thursday night for me. Flo, Stausi, Gutschi and I decided to have a sort of girls night out. We went to the movies to see a ski film called Valhalla, it was pretty good but it didn't contain that much actual skiing. Many ODS students attended and get this, it was a BYOB event. That's kind of what I love about Juneau, you would never find yourself at a movie with a bunch of your friends, your professor sitting a few rows behind you, drinking beer and enjoying a film inspiring you to follow your passions. It was a good night. After the film we went to a bar called Rendezvous, we watched Nate Wiley and Adam Wood perform. Nate plays the violin and Adam plays the guitar and writes the music. Man, they were incredible, I can't wait to see them play again! After they got tired of playing song after song.
They took a break around midnight and Stausi decided to give it a go. Ha, she is so funny sometimes. She had to make sure the chords were right on the guitar or something so she borrowed someone's guitar and went into the bathroom in order for it to be quiet enough to make the necessary adjustments. I couldn't help but get a photo of her! I'll also include the video of the song that she preformed. It's a German song that she wrote herself. It's called Körperwärme, and it's about body heat. A song about hypothermia is in the works! I know the entire chorus of Körperwärme which is kind of funny seeing as my German sucks, but anyways enjoy the video and you will be able get a quick glimpse of Adam (tank top and tattooed guy in the back) and Nate (adjusting the microphone) in the film!

Friday was pretty relaxing. I didn't have any real serious plans. I ended up hanging out with some friends and watching a movie until we caught word that the northern lights were out. Then we crammed ten people into a five passenger car and drove do the Mendenhall Glacier. We weren't actually on the glacier, we parked in the visitor parking lot and walked along the beach towards the glacier. The lake seemed to have frozen over quite a bit since I lasted visited. It was a beautiful night though, the sky was clear, the stars were out, it was the night before the full moon and I was surrounded by friends. I wore my black diamond jacket which makes me look like a green marshmallow, but I promise I was the warmest one there. I ended up laying down on the beach and just staring at the stars for hours. With the full moon reflecting on the snow, the whole world lit up. While everyone else decided to break away the ice and attempted to lift these massive ice blocks and throw them onto the ice watching them break into a thousand pieces. Unfortunately the northern lights weren't out for very long and we never go to see them. But it was still a spectacular night and I can't wait to sleep under the stars this summer.

Saturday morning CoCo, Emma and I went for a trip downtown, another girls day. ;) Although I miss going out on outings and getting all of that experience that will be necessary in order for me to become that specialized mountaineer or badass skier, it was kind of relaxing to just walk around downtown and not have to be bushwhacking for hours or carrying fifty pounds of weight on my back. I was able to get nearly all of my Christmas shopping done, other than mum & dad, which was a relief!

Last night I ended up going back downtown after our shopping trip. Unfortunately the bar scene is already getting a little old for me. I love dancing and I love listening to Nate and Adam perform. But man, alcohol is expensive! I think I'm just going to make Thursday night be my bar scene night, the rest of the weekend I can devote to snowshoeing up McGinnis, walking on the Mendenhall Glacier or learning how to ski. :)

I'd now like to conclude this very long post by just letting a few people know that I've finally responded to your letters! Katie Voynik, Ali Howe & Kristina Phomvongsa, make sure to be checking your mail by the end of this week! I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to reply, but I'm just so anxious to come home and I have a lot of final projects going on right now so my time will continue to be limited for the rest of the semester. Oh, and I'd like to remind everyone yet again. December 14th, 26 days from now, meet at All Stars at 8pm. The more the merrier, I can't wait to see everyone and hear all about all the wonderful things that I missed, and I can't wait to tell you all about my new life!

I could get use to looking at a view like this every morning. :)

The True Alaskan Experience: it's not about seeing the northern lights, experiencing that first snow fall or taking the prettiest pictures of the prettiest views. It's about getting dirty, it's about getting lost and having to find your way back, it's about making some of your biggest mistakes and forgiving yourself afterwards, it's about accepting everything that Alaska has to offer and feeling humble by simply being in its presence, it's about understanding how dangerous this world is and realizing that you're only human. I wouldn't say that I've had the true Alaskan experience, yet, but I'm certainly close.